America (World) Typewriter Serial Numbers

Serial Number Table Last Edited: 02/18/17 05:00NOTE: dates shown are JAN 1 unless noted, so the serial number shown is the *first* serial number produced the given year. Exceptions are serial
numbers preceded by "up to"(where you can assume that the numbers reported in that subsection are DECEMBER 31, END OF YEAR NUMBERS)
or rows where a month is given in the month column. If the serial number is shown as a range (xxxx-xxxx) it indicates
that we know the entire range of serial numbers for the given year.

Patented in 1886 by John Becker of Boston, Mass., USA and manufactured by
the World Typewriter Co., of Portland, Maine. Later manufactured by the bicycle maker
Pope Manufacturing Co. of Boston and still later by the
Typewriter Improvement Co. of Boston.
Also marketed in Europe under the name America and Boston,
which should not be confused with the rarer
Boston Index,
and is of a different design.

16

No. 1

1886

Index typewriter, type is a strip of rubber mounted on a swinging sector and is
usually missing. Pad inking. Characters chosen by a pointer over a semi-circular
index and printing is by pressing down on a bar that runs the length of the platen.
A ball on a spring arm attached to the right end of the printing bat strikes a
bell in the center of the swinging sector to warn of the end of margin.
Prints Capitals only.

16

No. 2

1890

Larger than the No. 1, prints Capitals and Lowercase, comes in a plush-lined
wooden case.

16

Platen Diameter

unknown

Reference numbers

*
Indicates source data the current list maintainer has access to. Usually it means we have a copy of the document in question, but it might be in the form of a later edition list. However, for the purposes of validation we have been able to confirm the source.

No.

Literature

1

* Century of the Typewriter, Wilfred A. Beeching, publ. by
the British Typewriter Museum, 1974, 1990, ISBN 0951679007

* R. Blickensderfer and P. Robert, "The Five-Pound Secretary. An Illustrated History
of the Blickensderfer Typewriter", publ. 2003 by The Virtual Typewriter Museum, excerpt contributed by Georg Sommeregger.